Delhi HC on Thursday refused to stay the investigation against Ashneer Grover and Madhuri Jain Grover in the FIR registered by Delhi Police based on a complaint by BharatPe, the company which has alleged that Grover and his wife were involved in a fraud amounting to ₹81 crore, according to a report published by Bar and Bench.
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) earlier this month registered an FIR (first information report) against former BharatPe managing director Ashneer Grover, his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, and family members, including Deepak Gupta, Suresh Jain, and Shwetank Jain.
The FIR has been registered against the involved parties under eight sections of serious cognizable criminal offences, including 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant, or agent), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 467 (forgery of valuable security, will etc), 120B (criminal conspiracy), among others.
In December 2022, the Delhi-based fintech unicorn filed a criminal complaint against Grover and his family with the EOW of Delhi Police, alleging fraud of ₹81.28 crore, criminal breach of trust, conspiracy, cheating, forgery and destruction of evidence.
The same month, BharatPe also filed a civil suit with the Delhi High Court seeking recovery of over ₹88.67 crore in damages from Grover and family under various heads.
It had filed an arbitration claim in Singapore to claw back restricted shares (1.4%) allotted to Grover and prevent him from using the title of a founder. In January this year, Koladiya sued Grover reclaiming the shares transferred in December 2018.
The Delhi High Court on May 16 asked Ashneer Grover and BharatPe to refrain from using unparliamentary and defamatory language against each other.
Ever since his exit from the company in March 2022, Grover has been making defamatory statements against BharatPe, its co-founders, and the company’s board, particularly against Rajnish Kumar.
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